The 10 Biggest Mistakes Campaigns Are Making This Election

Most weeks in this newsletter we dive into a particular topic in political technology. But with crunch time upon us, we thought it would be useful to summarize the biggest mistakes we see campaigns making this cycle across a range of issues.

So here are 10 mistakes to avoid as you enter into the home stretch. . .

Mistake 1: Not Having a Cookieless Strategy

Perhaps it is the complexity of this topic, but campaign after campaign is whistling past the graveyard on the death of cookies. Let’s be clear about how deadly this is:

About 70% of all California voter cannot be reached withcookies, and at least 50% of voters nationally cannot be reached with cookies.

Unless you’re ok reaching only 30% of your targets, you need a cookieless strategy, and you need it now.

Mistake 2: Not Having a Platform to Geo-Fence at The Home-By-Home Level

You can either spray and pray or use precision targeting to reach voters at the home-by-home level. But this type of precision geo-fencing is not being used by the vast majority of campaigns. Instead, they are sending the same ads to tens of thousands of people because the platforms they use do not have home-by-home geo-fencing capabilities.

Unless you’re ok wasting your dollars on countless people who are not your targets, you need a home-by-home geo-fencing plan.

Mistake 3: Not Having a Plan to Reach Low Information Voters 

Many campaigns are failing to adapt to the reality that voter turnout expectations are substantially higher than they were just a few weeks ago before President Biden dropped out of the race. The biggest implication of this turnout is the need to speak to low information and low propensity voters, who suddenly could tip the outcome of your race. Traditional campaign tactics will not work to reach these voters because they consume little content in the usual places that campaigns target, but AI dramatically changes the ability to reach these voters.

Unless you’re ok ignoring countless voters who could determine the outcome of your race, you need methods to reach low information voters now.

Mistake 4: Not Having a Plan to Target Based on Specific Content People are Consuming 

Voters now consume content in countless ways. You can’t just target cable and online news and hope to reach your voters, because in high turnout elections the vast majority of content will be consumed across other media. You must meet voters where they are, not where you want them to want them to be. That means understanding what people are consuming online and on TV, and tailoring messages to these audiences based on this data, which the latest AI tools enable us to do.

If you use analog tactics in a digital world, you’ll wake up the morning after the election with a historic headache. 

Mistake 5: Relying on Social Media

This is another tactic for the ashbin of campaign history. Paid social media simply no longer works for political advertising, but countless campaigns continue to pretend like nothing has changed in this space. Social media no longer allows campaigns to do any political targeting of value, including even targeting based on political party.

You can keep writing Mark Zuckerberg checks, but he’s just cashing them and giving you nothing of value in return.

Mistake 6: Trusting The Voter File

Depending on the state and demographic group, 40-60% of voters are listed at the wrong address in the voter file. That’s a stunning amount of voters who are missed entirely in the vast majority of targeting. Most campaigns have no plan to reach these missing voters.

The good news is there are straightforward solutions to tackling this problem. But you can’t fix a problem until you admit you have one. Stop drinking from the poisoned well of the voter file. The data you need is there, but only if you ask for it.

Mistake 7: Not Embracing Connected TV

There has been no more radical change in media than the way people consume TV. We’re all familiar with the dozens of streaming options that now make up the TV ecosystem. Yet many campaigns continue to buy broadcast and cable TV as if nothing has changed. Connected TV (CTV) changes everything about TV strategy in politics, from how to target, to who you can reach, to the price you should pay. 

CTV opens up TV advertising to campaigns of all sizes, and it is indispensable even for the campaigns who can afford traditional television, because streaming now dwarfs traditional TV consumption.

CTV has become the most important way to reach most voters. If you’re not embracing it, you’re tuning out reality.

Mistake 8: Running The Same Ads To Numerous Audiences

AI has radically changed ad production, making it possible to micro-target numerous audiences with tailored content. It makes no sense to deliver the same ad to five different audiences. With AI, you can now afford five, top quality ads, for the previous price of one ad.  

If you’re not speaking to voters with messages tailored specifically for them, you’re losing. And if you’re overpaying for ad production, you’re wasting precious campaign dollars.

Mistake 9: Ignoring The Price and Imprecision of Direct Mail

One piece of direct mail now costs anywhere from 10-17x the price of a non-skippable, 30 second Connected TV ad. But it’s even worse than that because: 

• A high quality, 30 second CTV ad is non-skippable. Pick any study you want, but we all know no one reads unsolicited mail for that long.
  
  
• Direct mail can’t fix the fact that 40-60% of the addresses in the voter file are wrong (see above). CTV reaches voters where they actually are.
  
  
• Mail is a dataless blackhole. You have no idea if your targets are seeing the mail until it’s too late. With CTV, you know exactly when your target watches the ad, and you only pay for ads your target watches. 

Direct mail is perhaps the habit that dies hardest in politics. But it’s a simple question—for every piece of mail you do, ask yourself if it’s worth over 10 high quality, non-skippable CTV ads.

Mistake 10: Not Having A Digital Expert On Your Team

If you needed heart surgery, you wouldn’t rely on your general practitioner. But so many campaigns do the equivalent by not having a digital expert on their team. As the list of the above mistakes shows, successful campaign advertising has changed dramatically in recent years as technology has opened new doors, AI has become ubiquitous, and the ways that voters consume media are now radically different. Without a digital expert on your team, you’re asking your general campaign practitioner to do something not in their skill set. Successful campaigns require teams that integrate overall campaign strategy with the latest digital tools.  

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